IDM problems on Iserve/Orcon

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652 posts

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#911281 9-Oct-2013 11:36

We host about 70-75 domain names through our iSERVE account. Some of those also have websites on the same hosting account (although not many of them). I like the $80 per month unlimited everything that comes with the plan but like those of you above, am starting to get a little sick and tired of the poor invoicing systems in place with iSERVE/Orcon and the horrendous support response that we get to any queries. When trying to manage the renewals of 75-odd domains coupled with this ongoing auto-renew 'fault', life is becoming rather painful!

Given what we are hosting through iSERVE, does anyone have any recommendations of an equivalent service offering that doesn't have the pitfalls of the iSERVE hosting situation??

adw

175 posts

Master Geek

#911353 9-Oct-2013 13:28

MurrayM: My problem invoice (and its subsequent invoice for non-payment and invoice for disconnection) have finally been reversed and closed.

Lets hope it doesn't happen again!

Will keep my fingers crossed for you. Make sure you check for other duplicates, we've had some sites renewed and double billed at two month intervals. Hopefully that's all in the past...

adw

175 posts

Master Geek

#911356 9-Oct-2013 13:30

bcourtney: We host about 70-75 domain names through our iSERVE account. Some of those also have websites on the same hosting account (although not many of them). I like the $80 per month unlimited everything that comes with the plan but like those of you above, am starting to get a little sick and tired of the poor invoicing systems in place with iSERVE/Orcon and the horrendous support response that we get to any queries. When trying to manage the renewals of 75-odd domains coupled with this ongoing auto-renew 'fault', life is becoming rather painful!

Given what we are hosting through iSERVE, does anyone have any recommendations of an equivalent service offering that doesn't have the pitfalls of the iSERVE hosting situation??

Yes, it's very frustrating, I don't think Orcon are interested in the Iserve arm - service is appalling, we're still waiting for answers from problems last December and they appear to not care less. We have over 300 domain names with them so would also be interested of another solution, especially if someone allowed the customer to pay by credit card. Will watch for any suggestions with interest.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#911377 9-Oct-2013 14:04

I am not sure what the problem is with their support, at least online support. The last time I emailed them for hosting support, it took 10 days to get a reply. They offered their sincerest apologies for the delayed response, but no explanation.

MurrayM

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#911389 9-Oct-2013 14:16

I think initially iServe offered fantastic support when it first started, that's the main reason I stuck with them so loyally. I guess it was because hosting was their core business.

But when they sold out to Orcon they became just another department within a much larger company. And I guess the group of founding people (Brent McDowell, Joy Cottle, etc) quickly left and moved on to other things.

adw

175 posts

Master Geek

#911396 9-Oct-2013 14:39

mattwnz: I am not sure what the problem is with their support, at least online support. The last time I emailed them for hosting support, it took 10 days to get a reply. They offered their sincerest apologies for the delayed response, but no explanation.

You get rather tired of the apologies. Why can't they update their status on their website? It would cut down on the emails/calls they get and keep people happy. I really think they're losing interest in their hosting clients.

adw

175 posts

Master Geek

#911400 9-Oct-2013 14:41

MurrayM: I think initially iServe offered fantastic support when it first started, that's the main reason I stuck with them so loyally. I guess it was because hosting was their core business.

But when they sold out to Orcon they became just another department within a much larger company. And I guess the group of founding people (Brent McDowell, Joy Cottle, etc) quickly left and moved on to other things.

Brent was great, a pleasure to deal with and he knew his stuff. Orcon don't seem to understand what they bought, have cut back on support (no Gold support or weekend support now) and I think just sit there hoping everyone will go somewhere else.

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MurrayM

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#911403 9-Oct-2013 14:48

adw: You get rather tired of the apologies. Why can't they update their status on their website? It would cut down on the emails/calls they get and keep people happy. I really think they're losing interest in their hosting clients.

Indeed!

Back in 2011 there was a problem with sending email from iServe web servers to Yahoo / Xtra addresses (Yahoo had blacklisted iServe or something silly). There was nothing iServe could do about the problem other than notify Yahoo and go through the usual filling in of forms and waiting to be unblocked (as we all know Yahoo are a bit of a law unto themselves). I suggested to the tech that I was talking to about this problem that maybe something should be mentioned about the problem on the service status page. He had to ask his managers and they decided against it. Maybe they were worried about looking bad? I don't know, but I've always thought that it was better to be honest about things rather than try to cover them up. Especially as in this case the fault wasn't really with iServe!

adw

175 posts

Master Geek

#911408 9-Oct-2013 14:53

MurrayM:
adw: You get rather tired of the apologies. Why can't they update their status on their website? It would cut down on the emails/calls they get and keep people happy. I really think they're losing interest in their hosting clients.

Indeed!

Back in 2011 there was a problem with sending email from iServe web servers to Yahoo / Xtra addresses (Yahoo had blacklisted iServe or something silly). There was nothing iServe could do about the problem other than notify Yahoo and go through the usual filling in of forms and waiting to be unblocked (as we all know Yahoo are a bit of a law unto themselves). I suggested to the tech that I was talking to about this problem that maybe something should be mentioned about the problem on the service status page. He had to ask his managers and they decided against it. Maybe they were worried about looking bad? I don't know, but I've always thought that it was better to be honest about things rather than try to cover them up. Especially as in this case the fault wasn't really with iServe!

Absolutely, it's not as if people haven't noticed so they just add to your frustration by making you chase them down to get an answer. Especially when we want/need to go back to our clients with an answer - why do they like looking so unprofessional?

MurrayM

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#911411 9-Oct-2013 15:00

adw:
MurrayM: I think initially iServe offered fantastic support when it first started, that's the main reason I stuck with them so loyally. I guess it was because hosting was their core business.

But when they sold out to Orcon they became just another department within a much larger company. And I guess the group of founding people (Brent McDowell, Joy Cottle, etc) quickly left and moved on to other things.

Brent was great, a pleasure to deal with and he knew his stuff. Orcon don't seem to understand what they bought, have cut back on support (no Gold support or weekend support now) and I think just sit there hoping everyone will go somewhere else.

No Gold Support? I'm a Life Plan Plus customer but very rarely have I had to make use of the Gold Support phone number. I think the last time was a few years ago and it worked ok for me then (although the person who answered wasn't too sure what Gold Support was but they eventually found a list of Gold Support customers and found my name on it).

I have a copy of the original agreement somewhere, and I'm pretty sure that it had a clause that said if iServe sold the hosting business to another company that the other company would have to honour the agreement. If Orcon have cut Gold Support then that would indicate that they're not honouring their commitments.

adw

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#911432 9-Oct-2013 15:40

MurrayM:
adw:
MurrayM: I think initially iServe offered fantastic support when it first started, that's the main reason I stuck with them so loyally. I guess it was because hosting was their core business.

But when they sold out to Orcon they became just another department within a much larger company. And I guess the group of founding people (Brent McDowell, Joy Cottle, etc) quickly left and moved on to other things.

Brent was great, a pleasure to deal with and he knew his stuff. Orcon don't seem to understand what they bought, have cut back on support (no Gold support or weekend support now) and I think just sit there hoping everyone will go somewhere else.

No Gold Support? I'm a Life Plan Plus customer but very rarely have I had to make use of the Gold Support phone number. I think the last time was a few years ago and it worked ok for me then (although the person who answered wasn't too sure what Gold Support was but they eventually found a list of Gold Support customers and found my name on it).

I have a copy of the original agreement somewhere, and I'm pretty sure that it had a clause that said if iServe sold the hosting business to another company that the other company would have to honour the agreement. If Orcon have cut Gold Support then that would indicate that they're not honouring their commitments.

Absolutely, no Gold Support, they're not honouring their commitments. Apparently they sent an email out at the beginning of this year changing their hours but they didn't specifically mention the withdrawal of Gold Support - was a surprise to us too. In this they allegedly offered $1000 if you wanted to move and close your account - they really don't seem to have any commercial understanding of the work involved in moving sites, databases and the inconvenience to our clients of then having to change email programmes on PCs, phones, etc.

MurrayM

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#911441 9-Oct-2013 15:53

adw: Absolutely, no Gold Support, they're not honouring their commitments. Apparently they sent an email out at the beginning of this year changing their hours but they didn't specifically mention the withdrawal of Gold Support - was a surprise to us too. In this they allegedly offered $1000 if you wanted to move and close your account - they really don't seem to have any commercial understanding of the work involved in moving sites, databases and the inconvenience to our clients of then having to change email programmes on PCs, phones, etc.

I remember an email about the support hours changing.

Yes, it would be a nightmare for us to move our hosting. We have about 160 domain names in our HMC account, some of them just parked and some sites have more than one domain pointing to them. About 80 odd actual websites.

Maybe it might be worth setting up some sort of informal "iServe Users Group"? We could use it to keep in touch and share problems. Would be handy to know if we were the only ones experiencing a problem or if it was more widespread. This forum is ok and I keep an eye on it for iServe related matters, but it's a shame that iServe is lumped in with general Orcon ISP stuff.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#911442 9-Oct-2013 15:55

I haven't had to use gold support this year, but the gold txt support in the control panel has been broken for a long time. WHen I phoned gold support last year it was working, but it was a contracted out service with another company, and they then phone the oncall tech. Haven't received any coms or change of contract, to say it has been withdrawn.
Their normal phone support is good I have found during business hours, but I find it much easier to use email for support, so if you want support, the best thing is to phone them.

MurrayM

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#911456 9-Oct-2013 16:03

mattwnz: I haven't had to use gold support this year, but the gold txt support in the control panel has been broken for a long time. WHen I phoned gold support last year it was working, but it was a contracted out service with another company, and they then phone the oncall tech. Haven't received any coms or change of contract, to say it has been withdrawn.
Their normal phone support is good I have found during business hours, but I find it much easier to use email for support, so if you want support, the best thing is to phone them.

I must admit that when I've had to phone them recently I've been able to speak to someone fairly quickly, not much hanging around on hold. I'm not sure if the iServe support is lumped in with the Orcon ISP support or if they have separate support teams, but I usually end up speaking to one of just a couple of people.

I sent in a support request via email yesterday afternoon (I needed the sticky bit set on a directory that I want to use for uploading files to), but I haven't heard anything back yet (not even the usual acknowledgement, maybe they've stopped sending acknowledgements?) It's not urgent, that's why I sent it via email, but I remember the old days when you could get a reply within 15 minutes. Now that was service!

mattwnz

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#916396 17-Oct-2013 00:41

The servers look to be down at the moment. Nothing on their status page, and I have noticed that the gold support txt system appears to have been removed from the control panel.

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